Swiftkey has the honour of having one of the most popular third party keyboards on mobile devices. It is still on edge and won’t relax until it gets more of your attention. To that end, it has an in-house team that takes on ambitious projects. Like the Clarity keyboard we told you about last month. The latest from that Greenhouse team is a launcher, a home replacement application, Hexy.
I have been using Hexy for over 12 hours now as my default launcher. Save for one crash late last night, it has been very stable. However, other than the fact that it is the newest launcher out there and there was need for me to test, there isn’t much going for it. Or at least that is what I thought when I started using it last night. At first, it’s just bare. Another launcher. However, over time, it learns more from you. It is contextually aware so it will increasingly feature the applications you use most and the hexagonal canvas layout will re-organize itself so that Messages and the dialer application are front and centre and apps you hardly ever fire up like Galaxy Apps are hidden down below.
While the layout and general implementation of the application is a big break from the usual multiple screens and app drawers, it will take a lot of getting used to and patience as it learns from you. Before it does that, the search bar at the top will be your best friend. You can as well switch to a more organized layout by toggling to re-arrange the apps as per their order in the English alphabet.
The lack of docked apps is very noticeable. I would want my Whatsapp, Telegram, Gmail and Chrome apps as a permanent fixture on my screen and not switched interchangeably depending on what some algorithm thinks I want at that moment. Also the placement of widgets is hideous. I have to click somewhere to view my daily Bible reading? What are we? iOS users? Back to Nova. So long Hexy.
